Jun 24Why Can’t We Get Our Novel Published?Nearly 40 years ago, or maybe it was more, I was a photographer on an archeological excavation in northern Israel at Tel Akko. It was there that I met Neil Silberman. That’s him on the left, me on the right. We were young then, just starting out careers. He was…Books4 min read
Jun 2Big News About The Heard-Depp TrialThe Heard-Depp trial is big news and it tell us a lot about the future of news. Personally, I did not follow it. But that clearly makes me something of an outlier. More than 18 million people watched it on TV news coverage in the United States. I am sure…Media3 min read
May 12Who Gets To Decide What is News?According to recent polls anywhere from 67% to 78% of Russians support the ‘special military action’ in Ukraine. This support is entirely a function of the ‘news’ that they see. For most Russians, according to The BBC, their main source of news and information is television, and television news in…Journalism4 min read
Apr 19Journalists Love a Free Press — Until They are Actually Confronted With OneElon Musk’s vision of Twitter is a truly open platform — a ‘town square’ where people can say whatever they like. This is the essence of a Free Press. Yet this vision sends a wave of terror through the journalism community. Journalists love to champion “Free Press,” that is, until…Elon Musk3 min read
Apr 1Is The United States Ungovernable? — Pack The House Instead of the Supreme CourtAs an American with homes in the United States and the UK, I have had the unique opportunity to experience first hand the governments of both nations. Trust me, the UK works better. It works better for a fairly simple reason — it is really a representative government. Members of…Congress3 min read
Mar 26RIP Dirck Halstead- You Taught Me A LotIn 1990, when I founded Video News International, an all VJ (or MMJ) global TV news company, the concept was unique. No producers, no camera people, no editors and no on air ‘talent’. Just a journalist with a video camera. My first investor in the new business was a man…Videos2 min read
Feb 16Is This Really Necessary? The Complexity of TV News.I am a regular viewer of news on The BBC. I think they have the best news programs (or should I say programmes) in the world. I like to start each day with BBC Breakfast and end each day (as least news-wise) with BBC News At 6. Yesterday, their top…News3 min read
Feb 11Is Advertising Archaic?Above all else, we humans are creatures of habit. Once we have found a way to do something, it is very hard for us to change, even if the advent of a new technology makes the old way of working impractical, or sometimes even deadly. In 1914, when the First…Olympics4 min read
Jan 29How The Only Black Teacher I Had Suffered Racial Abuse — And Made My Career in TV PossibleI was going to write a cute story about how shop class in Jr. High School made my lifelong career in TV possible. Let’s start with that, but it becomes, trust me, much more interesting and MUCH more upsetting. Shocking, actually. But maybe I was just naive. I went to…Education3 min read
Jan 26Boris Johnson, Captain Tom and the Astonishing Power of The MediaWhat do Boris Johnson and Sir Captain Tom Moore have in common? Pretty much everything. Captain Tom Moore. A nice old man, a pensioner, is about to turn 100 years old. He is living with his daughter and son in law. Having nothing to do, his son-in-law suggests he try…Boris Johnson4 min read